Strategic Thinking By Brian Tracy

The Quality of Thoughtfulness...
The ability to think and plan strategically is perhaps the most important single skill of the effective executive.

In a longitudinal study of leaders who, in retrospect, made the best and most effective decisions, the single quality that stood out from all others was the quality of "thoughtfulness."

Thoughtfulness may be defined as a careful concern for the secondary consequences of each decision and each action. This is the essence of strategic thinking.

Your Most Powerful Tool...
The most powerful tool that you as an executive have to bring to bear on your work is your mind - your thinking ability.

Everything you do that sharpens and hones your ability to think with greater clarity before acting, will benefit you and help you to move upward and onward more rapidly in your career.

Use a Two Pronged Approach...
The best way to approach strategic thinking is two pronged. This means to work simultaneously on the personal and the corporate.

Increase Your "Return On Energy"...
In personal terms, strategic planning is an exercise in increasing "return on energy." Your greatest single asset is your earning ability.

And your earning ability is nothing more than the total of the mental, emotional and physical energies that you can apply toward getting valuable results for yourself and your company.

Anything that you can do to increase your return on energy invested will increase your overall levels of effectiveness and contribution in every area of your life, especially, and most importantly in your work.

Action Exercises:

Here are two things you can do immediately to increase your return on equity and your return on energy.

First, think about everything that you are doing in terms of its financial return to your organization. What are the things that you do that yield the highest return on equity? Whatever they are, do more of them.

Second, think in personal terms about the things you do that give you the highest return on energy. Where do you contribute the greatest value and achieve the greatest satisfaction? Whatever they are, do more of these things.
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Brian Tracy is one of the world's leading authorities on personal and business success. His fast-moving talks and seminars are loaded with powerful, proven ideas and strategies that you can apply immediately to get better results in every area. Visit the Brian Tracy web site.

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In Tough Times-Silence Is Not Golden By Eileen McDargh

In the face of this severe, take-no-prisoners economic downturn, far too many organizations are responding in knee-jerk reaction to the thought of holding all but the smallest of meetings.

Training budgets are slashed. Employees hunker behind their desk, hoping that no one from HR can find them or else they're huddled around a PDA, text messaging about possible layoff scenarios, pending mergers, or hiring freezes. Performance? Productivity? I think not.

Now more than ever, managers at all levels of the organization need to do that which separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom: TALK!

Here's why:

(1) In the absence of information, we connect the dots in the most pathological way possible.

(2) E-mail works fine for data but when emotions are involved, only face-to-face really carries the day.

(3) There's a huge benefit when people gather to share ideas, brainstorm new procedures, learn more about team members, have questions answered, or explore ways to streamline work loads.

(4) Smart companies will use this downtime to cross train, to coach for performance and career development, and involve employees in corporate decisions.

(5) Diverse perspectives are critical for innovation and these are best gleaned through conversation.

Bottom Line: The organization will have a solid, committed employee base, poised to move into front position when the turnaround comes.

But this will only happen if talk becomes the preferred vehicle of communication.

Four Communication strategies to increase your Talk Quotient (TQ).

STRATEGY # 1: CONDUCT A TALKING STICK MEETING ...

A talking stick meeting allows everyone to hear a wide variety of ideas and inputs because each person who "holds the stick" is assured free speech, no reprisals, no humiliations, and no interruptions. Many native American tribes used the stick as a way of allowing all voices to be heard.

Talking Stick Meeting Checklist:

(1) Create a focus question to present to the group, assuring them that all are invited to speak, without interruption or humiliation.

(2) Form a real circle with everyone in the circle. This brings equality.

(3) When everyone who wishes to has spoken, summarize the conversation and what you will do with the information.

STRATEGY #2: SEEK OUT THE "ORANGE BATONS" ...

If you happen to get a window seat on a plane that is coming into the terminal, look out and find the man or woman who is guiding a 737 aircraft (weighing over 90,710 pounds) into position. Those small orange batons wield plenty of authority in the moment. And well they should.

You see, there's a line painted on the tarmac to show exactly where the front wheel of the 737 MUST stop. Otherwise, passengers at the gate literally would have a pilot in their laps. The problem: the pilot sits too high to see that line. The pilot depends upon the "orange Batons" -- those closest to the situation-to move the craft into position.

Everyone has orange batons in the workplace. The higher up an organization a manager sits, the more crucial is the conversation. As customers, we've all been privy to disgruntled customer service reps who can't help us because senior managers have created practices that tie their hands. Recently, I asked to speak to the support service personnel on a Delta Sky Miles Account. The agent informed me that even they can't talk to support personnel. "We can only use FAX and Courier service," was the response. I was angry and so was the agent. "They" had
made decisions without asking the Orange Batons what the ramifications might be.

STRATEGY #3 PAY ATTENTION TO LITTLE DAVIDS ...

When Patrick Harker, now the former Dean of Wharton School, was asked what made the critical difference in the school's most successful fund-raising campaign ($425 million in six years), he replied that he made it a priority to engage the next generation of alumni leadership.

Listening to the voice of David is a tradition from the Middle Ages and the Benedictines. The abbot of a monastery made decisions after getting the input from all the monks, beginning with the youngest monk. Had the elders in the Old Testament listened to the young kid with the slingshot, the giant Goliath would have been dispatched quickly. Little David was right, but it took time for the tribe to understand that young (or new) did not mean "unskilled."

Who are the newest and/or youngest on the team-your David's? It is often the newest members who ask the most discerning questions. They are not jaded by politics, the past, or protocol. Ask them for their opinions. Tell them that you expect them to teach you something at the end of three months. I guarantee that those employees will search high and wide to bring you innovation or, at the very least, an insight into some of your procedures, products, or services.

"Words of wisdom are spoken by children at least as often as scientists." -James Newman, American Astronaut

STRATEGY #4 LAUGHTER LIFTS THE LOAD ...

In tough times, humor is an essential survival skill. Talk can also be funny. Not the sarcastic biting humor of put-downs and inside jokes, but rather the humor that can lighten a difficult situation or put something in perspective.

A travel agency was known for helping its agents get through difficult customers by awarding the Order of the Salmon. At the end of the week, agents would know which agent had the most challenging week with customers yet still managed to keep a positive interaction going.

With much fanfare, the agent explained the challenge and was urged to exaggerate and use as much humor as possible. She was then awarded a plastic salmon for her ability to swim up stream. Being able to talk about the week, laugh at the difficulties, and be rewarded for staying calm helped generate both fun and connection within the office.

Laughter can put people at ease if it is used to acknowledge what everyone is thinking. I was asked to speak at a convention in which the main session room temperature hovered around 50 degrees. People were wrapped in tablecloths. By the end of the second day, it still had not warmed up. When it was my turn to talk, I welcomed them by saying, "Welcome to the land of the frozen chosen."

Gales of laughter and applause burst out. It made a point. The attendees were chosen to be there. It was a privilege.

Humor also lets us divide the serious from the mundane. Yes -- the room was way too cold. But in the scheme of things, it was not as important as gathering to work out a new marketing strategy. Humor can also point out the trite and the silly things we all do in work, relieve tension, and probably improve a process. When one group acted out a very funny skit around the various voice mail doom loops a customer had to go through in order to get to a human being, everyone laughed... and the system changed in short order.

BREAK THE SILENCE ...

The last challenge will be pulling people away from their PDAs and text messaging to actually have a conversation. A number of organizations are experimenting with "topless" meetings-as in laptop-less meetings. San Francisco design firm, Adaptive Path, has also put a crackdown on "crackberries", as President Todd Wilkens calls them in his company-wide blog. He claims that people now look each other in the eye, develop closer connections and meetings are more productive.

Productivity? Performance? If the talk quotient is increase, you bet. Talk might very well become the golden key.

(c) McDargh Communications.
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Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE is head of McDargh Communications, a training and consulting practice founded in 1980. She's also an award-winning author, radio commentator, and on the Board of the National Speakers Association. Eileen can be reached at www.EileenMcDargh.com.

Sponsor: Dr. John C. Maxwell's Learning The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership DVD Training Curriculum - You and your team will get clear insight into timeless leadership principles and learn a process for continual growth in the life of your organization. Order your copy of this powerful leadership training program.

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-What are your thoughts? Agree or disagree? Is there anything you would like to add to the ideas shared in the above article?

The Symptoms of a Leader By Matthew C. Horne

There is one common denominator among leaders: They possess a vision, and their vision does their thinking for them. Leaders are no different than any one else, they just make the decisions that no one else is willing to make when faced with the real life situations we all encounter.

Everyone naturally may not be a leader in the traditional sense of guiding followers to a destination. But we must all be leaders of our lives and take ownership of the dreams and visions we possess, and let nothing deter us from our desired end.

Many situations in life place us at various crossroads which require us to make pivotal decisions that affect the course of our lives. A leader, when placed in this position, will choose to think with their future as opposed to their feelings.

Feelings are real, and can cloud the vision of anyone if nothing is in place to weigh them against. A good way to be a leader and allow your vision to think for you is to subject your feelings, in a given situation, against the overall vision of what you want for your life. With this practice, structure is created and anything that is a detriment to you achieving your vision is exposed and dealt with accordingly. In the words of Dr. Myles Munroe “Purpose protects you.”

Leaders know how to exclude the excess, and remove the waste from their life. If a vision or sense of purpose consumes you, it naturally begins to rearrange every facet of your life so it’s constantly pointing you in the direction of your vision. As this takes place your thoughts will begin to sound like this: Is this taking me closer to my vision, or is this taking me further away?

A clear-cut vision of the future is what all leaders possess. A sense of arrival never penetrates the thinking of a leader, because a place of arrival always exists, or else they couldn’t be who they are. Leaders are never without a destination.

The best-selling book of all time (Also known as the Bible) suggests that “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” A corollary to this must be “Where there is vision, the people flourish.”
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Matthew C. Horne is a motivational speaker and leading authority in maximizing human potential and self-development. He is also the president of Optimum Success International and author of "The Universe is Inviting You In", available at www.matthewchorne.com

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Is Your Performance Review System Outdated? By Doug Staneart

One of the most common complaints that comes up in job satisfaction surveys is, "I never get useful feedback about how I am doing my job."

Most companies today use a performance appraisal system or an annual performance review system that was invented decades ago in a much slower business economy. So the assessment that is given to employees in annual, semi-annual, or even quarterly reviews tends to be outdated by the time it is received by the person who could benefit most from the information -- the employee.

In addition, the measurements that are in place in these appraisal forms are typically arbitrary and subjective. For example, when I was in college, I had an internship with a major Fortune 500 company. At the end of the 3-month internship, my performance assessment was reviewed by the other members of my department (in a 360 degree feedback method.)

All of these people thought that I was an exceptional intern, but they had to judge my performance based on the same five-point scale on the same form that they were judged by. I still remember the ache in the pit of my stomach when I saw all of the threes and fours on the job evaluation. My boss explained to me that very few people ever received fives on their evaluations, as that would leave little room for improvement.

After reading and re-reading the document, I was left with the same question that many employees today are asking: Did I or did I not do my job well?

In today's fast-paced economy, these traditional systems just don't work. Performance appraisals should be short, no more than ten-minutes, and should focus on the results expected from the employee's current position, and how effectively the employee's current goals are being met. And above all, the reviews should be easy to write!

For example, a Project Manager may have a number of different results that are expect from his or her performance. Is the project on schedule? Is it under budget? Are the company quality standards being met? Is the customer satisfied? Are employee expenses in line?

All of these results can and should be measured consistently. Intangibles can also be measured such as morale (through employee surveys, workplace absenteeism, and turnover,) leadership (productivity, development of people, and problem-solving skills,) and work ethic (are goals consistently met, are goals challenging, and are projects completed timely.)

With this system, a manager can schedule monthly "mini-interviews" taking just minutes. These sessions are valuable because they open lines of communication and they give the manager a chance to update the progress of the employee in different result areas.

If the employee is performing above expectations, then this is an opportunity to shine and set new goals, and if the employee is performing below expectations, then corrective actions can be taken. Then take just a couple of minutes to write the results.

These "mini interviews" make annual appraisals a piece of cake, because the employee and the manager now have as many as 12 separate (written) measured checkpoints along the way that show how the employee has performed over the last year.

This annual review now has documented facts to base an appraisal on. The employee sees that he or she was on budget 95% of the time versus receiving a four out of five, or that he or she is ranked in the 90th percentile of managers within the company based on leadership.

This system, although not foolproof, can greatly reduce the stress and tension associated with Performance Appraisals. It will cut down on the ill feelings associated with 360 degree method assessments as well. Companies using this type of system show dramatically higher productivity within months of implementation.
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Doug Staneart, doug@leadersinstitute.com, is CEO of The Leaders Institute, Management and Public Speaking Training. His classes focus on overcoming the fear of public speaking, building confident and autonomous leaders, and improving employee morale. He can be reached toll-free at 1-800-872-7830.

-What do you think are the key ingredients to ensuring that performance reviews are the most effective? Were there any ideas shared in the above article that you agree or disagree with?

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Conducting Effective Business Meetings By Doug Staneart

How would you describe meetings you have attended in the past? Last Tuesday, I was facilitating a workshop on how to facilitate more successful meetings, and to start things off, I asked the group that very question. The answers that they provided were very similar to answers that I have received from hundreds of workshop participants over the last ten years.

The first two responses were…
"Meetings are looooooooooong," and
"Meetings are BOW-ring (this workshop was actually held in my hometown of Fort Worth, Texas - thus the Texas twang.)"

Those two responses almost always come up when I ask the question. Others that also come up a lot are: Wastes of time, non-productive, confrontational, inefficient, repetitive, and a number of other negative descriptions. Every once in a while, I get a response like positive, informative, or necessary, but usually the other participants gang-up against the person very quickly.

Most people believe that business meetings are necessary evils, and in many cases, they are. But one of the most important things we can remember about business meetings is to NOT have one unless it is absolutely necessary. When your employees and coworkers are in staff meetings, they are not producing. Nothing is ever produced until after the meeting is over. Some one of my first pieces of advice to people who want to make meetings more effective is to have fewer of them.

About five years ago, I made this statement in a class, and a young lady in the front row raised her hand and said, "That sounds really good, but my whole job description involves going to meetings." I was intrigued, so I asked her to tell me more. She was a personal assistant to a manager of a Fortune 500 company, and she was hired by her boss to attend the meetings that he could not attend himself because there were not enough hours in the day.

After class, she and I sat down and identified 32-hours of wasted meeting time that she was participating in every week. These were meetings that neither she nor her boss was actually needed for, but that one of them attended every week. Over the next year, this one person increased productivity of her team by over 200%. Granted, this is an extreme case, but there are probably hours in each of our weeks that are wasted by ineffective meetings.

The tips below are strategies that I have collected over the years from class members who swear by their effectiveness. I hope they work for you as well.

1. Have an Agenda: Outline ahead of time what points will be covered in the meeting. Write it out, and distribute it to participants ahead of time. This will help avoid the "chasing of rabbits," and help participants be more prepared for the meeting.

2. Follow the Agenda: This sounds very elementary, but you'd be surprised by the number of people who take the time to create an agenda, and then totally disregard the agenda during the meeting.

3. Limit the Agenda to Three Points or Less: Ask yourself, "What are the three most important things we need to cover in the meeting?" Limit the agenda to these three points. The rest of the things you wanted to cover, by definition, weren't really that important anyway, so why waste everyone's time?

4. Set a Time Limit: I would suggest setting the time limit for the meeting to be no longer than 30-minutes. In future meetings, shorten the time by five minutes until the time limit is 15-minutes or less. The leader of the meeting will become much more efficient, and the participants will become much more focused as well. When the time limit is up, end the meeting.

You may not get to cover every single thing that you wanted to the first couple of times you try this, but within a short time, you will find that the major information points are being discussed and decisions are being made very efficiently.

5. Encourage Participation from Everyone, but don't Force Them: Instead of going around the table and asking for opinions or input, just ask a question and let people volunteer their answers. There will be times during any meeting that each person will "phase out" (especially if it is a looooong and BOW-ring meeting.) If we call on every person, it wastes time, and puts people on the spot.

Other ways of encouraging participation is to just ask a question, and after someone answers, say something like, "Good, let's hear from someone else." If there are people in your meeting who rarely speak, instead of calling on them directly, you might say something like, "I value the opinion of each of you, does anyone else have something to add." Then, just look at the person you want to hear from. If he or she has something to say, he or she will say it if encouraged in this way. If he or she doesn't, then you haven't embarrassed the person.

Meetings can be a very powerful way to communicate and solve problems. In past workshops that I have facilitated, we have shown leaders how to identify the root-cause of a problem, come up with dozens of possible solutions, come to a consensus as group on the best possible solution, and create a written plan of action that is measurable in 15-minutes or less.

Your meetings can be that efficient and that powerful too if you use these simple tips.
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Doug Staneart, doug@leadersinstitute.com, is CEO of The Leaders Institute, Management and Public Speaking Training. His classes focus on overcoming the fear of public speaking, building confident and autonomous leaders, and improving employee morale. He can be reached toll-free at 1-800-872-7830.

-Do you have any other advice you'd like to share on making the most of your business meetings?

Sponsor: Dr. John C. Maxwell's Learning The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership DVD Training Curriculum - This powerful training resource is designed to meet your leadership training needs! Order your copy of this powerful leadership training program.

*brought to you by BusinessLeadershipAdvice.com

Become a Strong Leader - Throw Out The Creative Filters, and Get Buy In! By Connie Timpson

A great new idea is like striking gold for any leader and team. It can be collected, examined, enriched and sold. But the process of finding the gold can be difficult even for the best of leaders and managers.

Creative Filters that thwart creativity - “I will not offer my idea until I am sure it’s what my boss is really looking for.” “The last time I offered an idea my colleagues ridiculed me.” “My ideas are too off the wall for my manager.” “My ideas never get accepted, so I will not try.”

What risk is there in sharing ideas? Many, you say, theft, betrayal, ridicule, doubt? Oh yes, and let’s not forget jealousy and ego. As Albert Einstein said,

Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds!

Remove the Filters ... We have learned to layer ourselves with filters that we believe protect our professional life. With training and coaching, a leader will be able to help his team feel safe during the creative process, strip off the filters, get the best ideas, and return the creative process to the most basic.

Give a child a shovel on the beach and he will create a dream castle. Give an adult a shovel and he will most likely store it in the garage. Millions of ideas have been stuffed into garages, attics, drawers, or abandoned in corners.

Tap Into Creativity and Gain Buy In ... Access both sides of the brain - unlock your team’s fears of being a little “wild.” Give them a green light to express their ideas. A strong leader will encourage every idea, while focusing on core principles like:

* There are no wrong answers - Encourage your team to put a lid on the left side that is always telling you, “Be careful, do not take professional risks, don’t share your ideas or someone will take them.”

Encourage every idea no matter how wild it might seem. At the age of fourteen Filo T. Farnsworth saw the idea for electronic television in the parallel lines of his father's potato field in Idaho. He battled with David Sarnoff of RCA until the bitter end. Sarnoff became rich and Farnsworth won only the title of “The father of television.” But while watching Neil Armstrong step on the moon, he said, “it was all worthwhile.”

* Rub one idea against another - Jim Henson created Kermit while home with the flu. He was inspired by his mother’s old green coat. He got the scissors, added a tennis ball, and Kermit was born! Having shared Kermit, his concept of a whole troop of lovable creatures got team love and development. Henson helped his crew rub one idea on the other to come up with the best ideas and characters.

* Defer judgment – keep comments positive. As the team leader you wield power over individuals. Your opinion influences advancement and stature. You have implicitly promised to keep ideas and people safe in the brainstorming session.

Gaining Buy In

Lead through discussion

* Focus on quality – which idea has monetary value, can be implemented and will advance the project.

* Analyze all possibilities - Grow and play with each idea. A better football, NERF balls, play dough, slime, all came from playing with an idea. The more they kicked it around and played with it the bigger the idea grew. Love the process – Stephen Spielberg said,” I dream for a living.”

* Lead your group to the best solution – “No, that does not mean – tell them what the best solution is.” Work through the ideas with the group until you come up with a common consensus that incorporates bits from many ideas that evolved during the creative session.

Every new idea is a great one. Learning how to become an effective leader, who knows how to manage his people and get the best ideas from his team, will help you advance your professional course.

The only bad idea is the one that stays in your heart and head.
An effective leader can convert those creative nuggets into gold.

Bill Gates - We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be.

Taking a risk on your team’s ideas, giving the ideas flesh and voices, may be a bit daunting. But ideas will never be brought together and grown if they remain silent. We can help you learn how to be a highly effective leader, who can turn ideas into gold.
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Connie Timpson, is an instructor and personal coach for The Leaders Institute, Management and Supervisor Training. Her classes focus on overcoming the fear of public speaking, building confident and autonomous leaders, and improving employee morale. She can be reached toll-free at 1-800-872-7830.

-What are your thoughts on the ideas you just read?

Sponsor: Dr. John C. Maxwell's Learning The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership DVD Training Curriculum - This powerful training resource is designed to meet your leadership training needs! You and your team will get clear insight into timeless leadership principles and learn a process for continual growth in the life of your organization. Order your copy of this powerful leadership training program.

*brought to you by BusinessLeadershipAdvice.com